14 votes

Peace in Northern Ireland is fragile

Posted by DanBC
Tags: politics, northern ireland, peace, war, riots, united kingdom, geopolitics

Striking image: "There was never a good war or a bad peace": https://twitter.com/OrlaithClinton/status/1379900804878974979?s=20

A useful thread: https://twitter.com/OrlaithClinton/status/1379869873787002887?s=20

This is 1) heart-breaking and 2) very, very, worrying.

7 comments

  1. [3]
    petrichor
    Link
    I feel like there's some missing context here.

    I feel like there's some missing context here.

    8 votes
    1. MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      "LIVE updates as bus hijacked and set on fire in Belfast riot"

      "LIVE updates as bus hijacked and set on fire in Belfast riot"

      2 votes
    2. nukeman
      Link Parent
      Uh, yeah. Was there some incident in NI? Edit: linked context in another comment.

      Uh, yeah. Was there some incident in NI?

      Edit: linked context in another comment.

      1 vote
  2. nukeman
    (edited )
    Link
    Context from Wikipedia TL;DR: Unionist/Loyalist rioting has been occurring since March 30th. They are upset at the post-Brexit sea border, the decision not to prosecute Sinn Féin politicians...

    Context from Wikipedia

    TL;DR: Unionist/Loyalist rioting has been occurring since March 30th. They are upset at the post-Brexit sea border, the decision not to prosecute Sinn Féin politicians attending the funeral of IRA intelligence head Bobby Storey (and breaking COVID-19 restrictions), and the Police seizure of drugs from an Ulster Defence Association branch.

    8 votes
  3. [2]
    DanBC
    Link
    To understand this you need to understand the border issues that are caused by Brexit. Does the soft border between Northern Ireland and Ireland get converted into a hard border, or does a new...

    To understand this you need to understand the border issues that are caused by Brexit.

    Does the soft border between Northern Ireland and Ireland get converted into a hard border, or does a new hard border come into existence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK? Or is there some other plan to avoid these border problems?

    https://twitter.com/syrpis/status/1379794968907284480

    3 votes
    1. mat
      Link Parent
      I think it's very bold of you to assume our government has anything approaching a "plan" on this issue. Boris is an absolute shambles and thinks he can bullshit his way out of this. He cannot. In...

      I think it's very bold of you to assume our government has anything approaching a "plan" on this issue. Boris is an absolute shambles and thinks he can bullshit his way out of this. He cannot.

      In a wider sense this was never really on their radar of concern as the Tories don't give a single fuck about Northern Ireland. The DUP, despite being there on the ground and of Northern Irish heritage, are only marginally less terrible.

      Boris's lack of clue and lack of giving a damn will quite likely end up fucking the GFA and then the shit will really hit the fan. A friend of mine grew up in Derry in the 80s/90s and she's terrified. Her parents are moving out of the city (and ultimately NI itself) because they can see a very clear and obvious path back to both police checkpoints and violence.

      I'm still a bit cross with Sinn Fein who could have stopped all this by showing up in Westminster to tip several key brexit votes in the right direction. I know why they don't take their seats in general but special circumstances and all that. Mind you, who knows what their agenda is.

      6 votes